Arkham's Final Horror
by Harley Eve
Summary: Halloween Special. The Joker is the sole inmate of Arkham Asylum during the events of The Dark Knight Rises. For the past eight years, Gotham City has left him to stew in his own madness. Now, what happens when the power goes out, and the Joker wants out?
1. Prologue

**A/N:** Hello ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to a new rabbit hole.

I don't know about all of you, but I simply _love_ Halloween. It's the perfect holiday. And you know what, in honor of this amazing holiday, I'm going to finally play with an idea that's been knocking around in my brain.

It was brought to my attention a little while after The Dark Knight Rises came out. Did anyone see the Joker in Blackgate Prison? _Noooo...? _Then where on _Earth_ could that mad man be? Well... the only place they _could_ put him would be Arkham Asylum. But, everyone else was moved to Blackgate. So wouldn't that mean that the Joker is going to be the _only_ person in Arkham Asylum? Well then... if that's the case, what happened to him while Bane was taking over Gotham and madness once again overtook the city?

Shall we explore this possibility? Surely you're as curious as I am.

This chapter is just a little experiment to get a feel of things and give a bit of background.

* * *

**Arkham's One Horror**

Chapter 1**  
**

A few years ago, Gotham City had no hope. Gotham City was a cesspool of evil, corruption, and fear. Everyone put their worst foot forward, on top of the heads of everyone else. If you weren't in that inner circle, you were a mere puppet. A tool. A bug.

But then, everything changed. Someone stood up to the norm. Someone disobeyed the rules the mob bosses spent years setting up. He shook them down to their core, tore down their walls, and did his best to destroy anything they built. He was the nightmare of every shadow Gotham had bred.

The Batman.

A Dark Knight to chase all the other little shadows away.

He scared them. And he had to. The only way to control fear is to put fear into it, by putting hope into fear's victims. It's an endless cycle. A cycle the new victims were desperate to beat.

So they placed a new shadow over Gotham, something that would swallow up Gotham and its _Dark Knight_. Something that would spread like a virus, and infect everything it touched. Something that could put fear into the nightmare of Gotham's original shadows.

The Joker.

A man who could _smile_ in front of the Dark Knight's stare.

No… no not a man.

A _monster_ who would _laugh_ at the city and _all_ of its former shadows.

A _creature_ that would drown Gotham in an everlasting night, smothering every bit of light it could cast.

And he succeeded, at least for a moment. He placed a bloody smile in the hearts and minds of all the pitiful Gothamites. He made them all cower beneath his dome of shadows while he looked over them and _laughed_ at their horrified faces when they finally realized they couldn't use the light to hide from their true nature.

He helped them all discover that the monster didn't _have_ to come from the outside.

The shadows didn't _always_ come from a lack of light from the outside.

There's that little part inside of people… the part they always try to hide with their rules and their fake morality… the _blackest part of them that could __**never**__ be matched by the darkness outside._

It was always there. The Joker just helped them find it.

But then the Dark Knight _cheated_. He _smoldered_ the spreading darkness. And when the light returned to Gotham, the people of Gotham pretended that they never saw it. They pretended it still didn't exist.

And after seeing the hidden darkness within themselves, the people of Gotham were _determined_ to never see that darkness again. They wanted to obliviate the memory. They wanted to make sure there were no reminders of the life they led, or the reflection they had seen in the clear mirror when their falsehoods were taken away.

So they chased away every touch of darkness they could. And hid it all away. They put it in jails. Chased the helpless out of the city. Built up the hope of those who could grow.

And as for the new darkness? The thing that had… _granted them_ a new lease on life? The one that had shown them the truth?

Of course, they had to put him away. Somewhere where they would never have to see him again.

Where had they trapped the shadow that ate all other shadows?

Well, in the best kept secret of Gotham of course.

Arkham Asylum. The last _real_ back alley of Gotham these days. The last place that no one wanted to touch.

The Harvey Dent act had made it impossible for everyone else to plead insanity and be placed in Arkham Asylum. The mob thugs had been placed in Blackgate. The actual crazies had been placed in a _real_ mental asylum.

No one had argued against the Joker's insanity plea. No one had tried to argue against his crimes against the city. No one had fought the Joker's transportation to Arkham Asylum.

They just wanted him gone. They just left him there to stew in his own shadows.

For the past eight years, Gotham had done its best to forget about the beast they had buried under stone and metal, guarded by a small force of twenty.

But how are stone and twenty mere men supposed to guard true darkness… when Gotham's days come to an end?


	2. Chapter 1: Ausfall

**A/N:** Yup, finally I've uploaded a new chapter in what, over a month? I'm so sorry this took so long but none of my fanfics were coming our right and I tried my best to make them good. I ended up deleting half of this chapter... which I now regret. In retrospect, I should have kept it and just included it in the next chapter. Oh well. I can't remember any of it so it won't hold me back too much.

So, in this chapter I'll be introducing an OC named Austin Fall. He's going to be an interesting character indeed, so I hope you guys like him. He's going to get complicated and he's definitely multifaceted, so we'll see where that takes us. Please, enjoy.

Oh, and because this is my very first horror story, I'd love it if someone who's more experience in horror stories could help me. Message me if you're interested. ^_^

* * *

**Arkham's One Horror**

**Chapter 1: Austin Fall**

Austin Fall walked into the surveillance office with a straight face, but with energy that only optimistic youth seem to have. "Mornin' Jerry," Austin said smoothly as he slipped into his seat, immediately turning his chair towards a slightly obese man with a newspaper in front of his face and away from the monitors.

Jerry just grunted behind his newspaper. Austin has worked in the building for about five months now, and not _once_, in all their time together, has Jerry said an actual word to him. He wasn't much of a talker, more of a watcher as Austin learned about two weeks ago when he caught Jerry looking at him.

"Readin' the newspaper Jerry-boy?" Austin asked, trying once again to pull Jerry into a conversation to no avail. Jerry just continued to read –if that's what he was doing, sometimes Austin wasn't completely sure. But trying to get the nearly silent Jerry to talk was better than actually working.

Austin worked in one of the last rat holes left in Gotham after the Harvey Dent act –although it was technically outside of Gotham. Unfortunately, it had the worst rat of all within its walls.

Austin frowned and tried another one of his many tired out strategies. "So, how's 'e behaving?" Austin asked without looking at the screens. He preferred not to look at the screens. Jerry was the one that watched _him_ from time to time and make sure that the security guard in front of the cell was still alive. Austin sometimes checked up on the security guard too, but mostly kept an eye on the hallways and gates.

Jerry nodded behind his newspaper, signaling the prisoner had behaved. Austin just nodded acceptingly, finding himself in the same awkward position as every other day. He knew he was supposed to have become accustomed to the silence, maybe even found it relaxing, but he felt the need to talk. That was just his character. He was a social person. Talking was how he would be making his work days shorter. Unfortunately the only person here that liked to talk was a little…

"_Hello?_" said a crackling voice over the speakers in the room. Austin knew what the source of the voice was, and despite him being safe from… it, he felt a shiver go down his spine. "_Anyone in the office today? Or have you all dropped dead?"_

"_Shut up clown!"_

It was quiet for a little while, but Austin found it odd. The twenty-three year-old had been working in Arkham Asylum for about five months now and as much as he'd hate to admit it, he's found a few patters in the… prisoner's mannerisms –the boss said you always had to call the prisoner _the prisoner _even in your thoughts –such as the fact that he always seemed to have a comeback.

Austin looked at Jerry, hoping to find some of signal of "all-clear" or at least a hint of what the prisoner's expression was, but it seemed like something in the newspaper had intrigued him.

Austin inhaled and couldn't help but bite his lower lip.

He needed to know what the expression was, but he couldn't find the strength to turn in his seat. The screens were about eight inches away from his eyes, but he always avoided them. But the prisoner was being too quiet. He had to look. He had to check.

He slowly turned his body, keeping his eyes forward. He didn't want to look. He _really_ didn't want to look. After his second day… that second day…

"_No need to be rude officer. What _ever_ happened to innate kindness? Out the window I suppose,_" the prisoner said sarcastically. Austin breathed a soft sigh of relief and noticed Jerry's newspaper lower a bit.

"_You don't _deserve_ kindness _clown_,_" the officer shot back.

"Makes you wish for the days when we didn't have an intercom don' it?" Austin jumped at the old voice behind him. He looked and saw Aaron Cash standing on the opposite side of the chair. Austin relaxed but tried not to show it. Fortunately Cash's eyes never left the screen. "We didn't have to listen to his shit back then." Cash pressed a button to activate the intercom in the other room. "Officer!"

A man in his early forties came back into view of another camera –one Austin was more comfortable looking at. "Sir."

"Stop talking to the prisoner."

"_Well, someone's in trouble,_" the prisoner remarked in a sing-song tone.

With a bit of effort, Cash straightened up and took his finger off of the intercom button then turned to Fall. "I don't think you were here before we had the intercom." Austin shook his head silently and Cash put his hands on his hips. "Yeah. It was pretty quiet around here. We had 'im in his cell, a straighjacket and two armed guards outside. Cameras watching him twenty four hours a day… at first." Cash's face fell a bit. "Then we got cocky. Stopped watchin' 'im as much. Left him alone for a few hours every day. Guess he figured it out. One day he just up 'n… slipped off the straight jacket, opened his cell door, and used part of his jacket to kill the men standing outside his door." Austin watched as Cash's face darkened. "He killed three more before we brought him down…"

Austin stayed silent for a while… letting Cash think. But then he had to ask. "What does that have to do with the intercoms?"

Cash frowned. Austin couldn't identify all of his emotions, but one he could clearly see was grief. "He said that he was telling us his plan the whole time. Said he told us he got his jacket loose, got the gate unlocked, and knew how to unlock the door. Said he kept on repeating his whole plan, over and over again. For a whole three weeks… and he laughed in my face."

Austin felt like he should say something. Something to make his boss smile. Or at least feel better. He had wanted someone to talk to, and he still wanted someone to talk to. Arkham wasn't the best place to work, but having someone to talk to seemed to lighten the mood. Just this conversation seemed to keep his mind away from the prisoner.

It kept Austin from having to see the dank, dark stone around him that seemed to chill the air and absorb the light. It kept him from having to look at the screens that seemed to shiver yet never change. And it kept him from seeing those eyes…

His second day… his second day working here he was just in the surveillance room. Once again, he was doing his best to ignore his surroundings. He tried his best to forget that he was in the infamous asylum… Arkham Asylum. The name by itself was enough to make anyone sick to their stomachs. He could still hear the screaming… and Jerry was as silent as always. He didn't help Austin escape the screaming… and the echoes… and the cells screeching, and the doctors shouting, and the tv's blaring _and the patient's mumbling and electricity flowing and the lights buzzing and the gurney's wheels squeaking and then_…

"_One little drop of blood on the wall, one little drop of blood. Get the knife go take a life, two little drops of blood on the wall…" the prisoner had started to sing._

_Feeling empowered by his position and the prisoner's helplessness, Austin pressed the intercom button carelessly. "Shut it _clown_."_ _Right then, he had felt strong. Invincible. He held all the cards in this situation._

_The prisoner's head had popped up, his oily brown hair half covering his face. "A new voice? Well," Austin watched the prisoner lick his lips, "welcome to the family, friend. I'd offer you a handshake, but as you can see, I'm a little wrapped up in something."_

_Austin had scoffed at his lame attempt at a joke. Seven years to think about his sense of humor and that was the best he could come up with? How pathetic._

"_SHUT IT CLOWN BEFORE I PUT YOU DOWN!" the guard inside shouted, then looked up at the camera. "And YOU," he started, clearly talking to Austin, "stop talking to the prisoner rookie!"_

"_Oh officer. Why so _serious_? I was just giving my compliments to dear…" the prisoner swung his head around towards the camera in the corner of his cell, staring at it deliberately for a short moment. Austin felt a shiver go up and down his spine as he slowly watched the prisoner's face transform slowly. His eyes became evil, and his mouth turned into the slightest, teasing grin. He didn't say anything out loud…_

But Austin knows. Austin is certain that the Joker's lips said _Austin_.

"You ok son?" Cash asked.

Austin blinked and nodded a bit dumbly. Then, he decided he had to keep Cash talking, an attempt to keep the memory from lingering. "You know sir, it– it wasn't your fault. I mean... you've kept me alive for a while now," Austin commented, hoping it would cheer him up.

Cash smiles and grunted –or was it a laugh?– and pat Austin's on the back. He was quiet after that, staring through the screen at the prisoner while Austin just stared at Cash.

Austin watched as Cash's expression change over and over again. It changed from resentful to remorseful, then sad, then self-hatred, then blatant hatred when his eyes actually focused on the monitor, the guilt, and then finally resignation.

Austin jumped a little when Cash looked back at him. Austin cowered slightly, afraid that Cash would snap at him and take out his raging emotions on him. Just like–

Cash smiled. "You signed up to watch the football today right?" he asked, nodding towards Jerry's newspaper.

Austin frowned for a moment, disappointed that he had missed that conversation opportunity with Jerry –not that it would have worked, but it was worth a try.

Austin looked back at Cash and nodded. "Yeah but for the recording durin my next shift."

"Go ahead. I'll keep an eye on 'im for yuh."

Austin's eyes went wide. "Are you sure sir?"

Cash smiled kindly and nodded his head in dismissal. "Go ahead kid. Go watch the Rogues kick ass. I never really liked football anyway."


	3. Chapter 2: Echoes

**A/N: **Ok so we're still in the set up part of the story, but this is a major explanation for Austin's actions and thoughts in the future. I'll start the plot in the next chapter, although I won't have that many characters. I would love to hear what version of the Joker you guys would like me to stick with. For this story I'm actually a bit caught between sticking with Heath Ledger's Joker or the New 52 version of Joker since he's been locked up for so long. For those of you not reading the comics... the New 52 Joker is... an absolute sadistic psychopath/sociopath (I haven't decided which yet) to the point where Heath Ledger's Joker looks like the Riddler.

So essentially I'm asking how insane do you want to see the Joker?

* * *

**Arkham's One Horror**

**Chapter 3: Echoes  
**

Austin Fall's footsteps echoed through Arkham, the sound bouncing off the walls like a lifeless ball, because how can a replication have life if the original was already dead? Austin hated walking down Arkham's hallways, and the walls all knew it.

To Austin's ears, the echoes came back to him distorted. Walls can't speak, but they can return what you give them. New walls, like the ones in your homes and schools, are too young to speak and hold opinions. All they know is to be all wall. But old walls, stone walls with their insides still intact and filled with history, know that they can see, feel, and speak. While they cannot act, you can feel them trying to tell you their stories.

But what stories could a building like _Arkham_ hold that people would want to hear?

The building is filled with crabby old men, veterans of insanity and madness, whose stories can never… should never be released. You can feel it, can't you Austin?

The echoes are meant to push you away. The eyes in the walls, watching you squirm under their frozen gaze. Their fingers stealing the heat from your body, showing you how cold you would be in death.

You want to continue walking Austin? Then the walls will tell you a story.

Get off the wall you silly boy. The lights only flickered. The lights buzz, but only so the walls can keep your attention because they know you remember the sound. What other sounds do you remember? You remember the yelling don't you? You remember how the voices sound trapped in these walls, having been trapped in these walls years before. There's no difference is there? They start as yells, screams, and cries, but they only reach you as ghostly whispers, quieted with age. But they're better as whispers aren't they?

The ghostly whisper will decide to leave you, not wanting to tell the same dead story again.

But the walls want to tell you a story, but they're losing your attention while you lose your mind. Did you hear a familiar voice Austin? Whose voice was it Austin? Was that _your_ voice screaming through the walls Austin? It's not that far away Austin. Whose feet are those Austin? Are those _your_ footsteps Austin? Or are they _their_ footsteps Austin? Why are you running Austin? It was only a story Austin! Now they're chasing you Austin! Why not glance behind you Austin?! Why are you so scared Austin?! DON'T YOU HEAR HIM LAUGHING AUSTIN?! **YOU CAN'T STOP NOW AUSTIN!**

But then again, this isn't real Austin.

Austin crashed into the metal door, and clung to the iron cage protecting the glass. His breath was heavy as he sucked the Arkham air into his lungs.

As his heart began to slow, Austin straightened up and tried to eliminate all trace of fear from his person.

He was fine.

There were no echoes.

No footsteps.

No psychos.

And the lights weren't flickering.

They never flickered, he knew that.

He took a deep breath and looked in front of him. Behind the iron mesh and glass, the walls were bleach white with fluorescent lights making them glow. It looked kind of like a hospital… but a hospital is better than this dungeon of an asylum… isn't it Austin?

Austin shook his head and let out a long sigh before typing in the code to unlock the door. 3327. The light electronic notes becoming as melancholy as their surroundings as they bounced off the walls.

When the pad glowed green, Austin finally noticed his teeth digging into his lip. He forced himself to relax immediately and pushed the metal door open.

The air was warmer in this area of Arkham, the air pressure making it a bit difficult to open the door.

But there were echoes in here too. His footsteps bounced around in here too, but he didn't mind. These dumb walls just sent back his own careless creations. Soon, his steps had a rhythm as he swung his arms around boastfully like the optimistic youth he was. There was nothing to fear in here.

Up ahead a door was open with lights flashing through, energetic laughter echoing down the hallway. People.

Austin's smile widened and his pace matched his eagerness to reach the room.

"Sup guys?" Austin greeted, swinging into the room proudly.

The room quickly stilled, making Austin uneasy.

"Aren't you the new kid who watches the prisoner with Jerry?" one of the guards asked seriously.

"Yeah but Cash came by and took over my shift," Austin explained calmly, falling into one of the empty seats on the couch. The guard next to him smiled politely and Austin nodded, but the mood was obviously dampened.

"So, whadduyuh think boys? We gotta chance?" Austin asked, trying to start up the mood again.

" 'Course we do!" one of the younger guards argued. "We're the Gotham City Rogues!" His enthusiasm made Austin smile as he reached down for a beer… hoping the other guards would overlook his youthful countenance.

But one of the older guards snatched the beer out of Austin's hands. "Now don't get cocky, boy. Those Monuments ain't nothing to spit at. If those boys don't play it smart today, kiss this victory good bye." The guard then gave Austin a reprimanding look for trying to sneak a beer. Austin looked down at his hands, guilty and regretful. The gentleman was right. Sure, he loved the Rogues but they weren't _the best_ team. They couldn't afford to get cocky.

"Will you two shut it! C'mon man, the games' about to start! Even if the Rogues lose, I wanna enjoy the God damn show!" a mid-age guard complained. He had a point. Why worry about the outcome? Why worry about predicting the future? AS he listened to the announcer chatter excitedly about the game, Austin looked around him, to the life, energy and excitement around him, enjoying the moment of happiness and warmth in this place of melancholy and fear.

As he stood up for The National Anthem, he enjoyed the feeling of belonging and calm. He was in America, he was safe. He was surrounded by stone and men who could protect him if the need arose. And men who he would protect if need be.

He forgot for a moment that this was Gotham City, but the bombs that went off in the middle of the field were swift reminders.

Austin froze as the unimaginable happened.

He watched as some of the Rogues' star players fell down craters created by the explosion. His mouth fell agape and he tried to blink away the scene, expecting the scene to change back to reality, but this was reality. This was a reality that he hadn't created. It just… was.

Once the bombs stopped, Austin watched the tv screen as a large bald man in a mask stepped onto the field.

The room was absolutely silent as the man picked up a ref's headset and placed it on his own head. "Good evening citizens of Gotham…"


End file.
